Drop support for very old Arduino

PaulStoffregen

Well-known member
I'm considering dropping support for Arduino 1.0.6 and 1.6.5, and maybe even 1.8.1.

Is anyone still using these old versions? Or can anyone see a strong reason why Teensyduino should keep supporting them?

1.8.1 was the last version before major changes in arduino-builder. 1.8.7 seems to fix the performance regressions
(needlessly recompiling in many cases) that came with 1.8.2 to 1.8.5.

1.6.5 was the last version using Java for the build process. 1.6.6 removed lots of Java code and added the Google Go based arduino-builder.

1.0.6 was the last version in the 1.0 series, before platform.txt and major structural changes in the Java code.

The 2 reasons to drop these old versions are lack of support for the improved Ports menu (which has greatly reduced the number of "my computer doesn't recognize Teensy" threads on this forum...) and no testing is done anymore with those old versions.
 
I don‘t think that there is a reason to continue supporting older versions. Why would people not update their Arduino IDE version, if not for laziness or convenience.
In my eyes, it‘s a good idea to force users towards their luck. ;)
 
Seems like a good idea. It's not like there are security issues. Someone can continue to use an old version if they need to. It's not bad to give customers who are mostly hobbyists a little push to use something improved.
 
compatibility hinders enhancements and new features. People who want all the new features should update, everyone else does it :)
 
I say go for it...

My only hedge to this is, I know that there are probably a few Vendors out there that are still stuck on Arduino 1.0.x releases...

In particular Trossen Robotics has never officially migrated their stuff beyond 1.0.6. But I have had setups of their stuff setup to run on the latest Arduino releases and they had a beta of it running over two years ago... And some of us have made it easy for them to upgrade, but...

Besides: For anyone who needs an older version for some reason. Maybe simply put up instructions along the line of: You can install multiple versions of Arduino... And maybe give them instructions like, if you wish to run Teensy code on older versions of Arduino, here is a link to the last version of Teensyduino that you can install for those releases. But warning, there will be no more updates...
 
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